Two World Giants Give Support to Watershed Management Projects
Two world giants namely China and USA give support
to watershed management projects for supply of
water and prevention of seasonal runoff and floods through investing on
watershed management projects. Watershed management projects have many benefits
for the implementing countries including biodiversity
conservation, improving subsistence of local communities, flood control, drought mitigation, increase of natural
resources productivity, improving water quality, increase of resilience to climate change,
desertification and soil erosion control, range rehabilitation, sustainable
agriculture, immigration prevention, ensuring
water security and improvement of water management and services.
In recent years, investment on watershed management projects has received a wide attention worldwide. The City of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management (DWM) safely supplies clean drinking water to 1.2 million customers and maintains daily economic activity exceeding $250M each day.
Atlanta city has faced a major water shortage for many years. Most water network is outdated. For this reason, the authorities are attempting to modernize the infrastructure by allocating a multi-dollar budget, including construction of several water treatment plants.
China's investment on watershed management projects to control water tension aims to address overpopulation and consequent water crisis. In this connection, China is working with international partners including the World Bank. Based on reports, the World Bank has approved three loans worth 600 million U.S. dollars to China to improve water resource management.
The loans will be used to improve water supply and wastewater services and adopt integrated pollution and watershed management in the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Liaoning, according to a statement from the bank.
These projects will support local efforts to "adopt innovations and international good practices to improve water management and services, increase resilience to climate change, and ensure water security.
A 150-mln-dollar loan will be granted to a water resource and environmental protection project for the Qiandao Lake and Xin'an River basin in Zhejiang.
Another 200-mln-dollar loan will go to an integrated rural and urban water supply and wastewater management project in Jiangxi, which will benefit about 2.26 million people in seven counties.
Liaoning Province will receive a 250-million-dollar loan for a safe and sustainable urban water supply project to benefit 5.69 million people in five cities.
Water scarcity is one of the most pressing challenges to China's sustainable development. While water pollution imposes serious economic, ecological, and health-related costs, urban-rural gaps also remain in the coverage of basic water services.
The World Bank and China have developed a strong partnership in the water sector to address policy and institutional issues, test new approaches, and share experiences and examples from China with other countries.
نظر شما :